When Heidi Schara was named the executive director of the college foundation, she was also given a challenging task ? locate all the alumni of the institution that is currently Riverland College, including all of the past colleges.

Wednesday, August 11, 1999

When Heidi Schara was named the executive director of the college foundation, she was also given a challenging task – locate all the alumni of the institution that is currently Riverland College, including all of the past colleges.

&uot;The thing we need to attack initially is the name change,&uot; Schara said. &uot;We’ve had a lot of name changes over the years. We want to let them know that they are alumni of Riverland.&uot;

Schara wants all former students who graduated from the school now known as Riverland to feel like they are a part of the college. Graduates of South Central Technical College, Minnesota Riverland Technical College and Austin Community College are welcome to join recent Riverland Community College in the alumni association.

Schara hopes to keep alumni involved with the college and its current students.

The Austin campus already actively keeps some of its alumni involved in the college community.

Each year, the community college preforms a play using only alumni for the cast. It’s an opportunity for the alumni to keep in touch with current students and even faculty.

Schara doesn’t have definite plans for the alumni association, but she does have a vision.

&uot;We really want to start at a base level right now,&uot; she said. &uot;The initial job is to make them feel like this is their college, to give them a sense of ownership.&uot;

Once alumni from all the former college are on board, Schara sees much potential.

&uot;With the support of these people we can do some great things,&uot; Schara said.

She would like the alumni to be available to serve as mentors to students. She also hopes to build an even stronger base for the college foundations, both in Albert Lea and Austin.

Once the alumni association is underway, Schara plans to start a newsletter to let the alumni know what’s going on at the college, and they will also have the opportunity to learn about other alumni and students.

Outings, gatherings and parties will bring alumni together with some faculty members.

But it’s still a challenge to track down all of those students, Schara said.

&uot;We’re looking for volunteers for helping us to bring all the alumni back into the fold,&uot; Schara said.

Schara is also in the process of going through old databases from the former colleges and the current Riverland Community College to locate former students. But it’s a slow process at first.

&uot;We are going to start a committee and they’re going to look at how to approach people who are out of the area,&uot; Schara said.

Schara said the college continues to get phone calls from alumni, one of the motivators for starting the organization up again.

&uot;This (alumni association) has been started before, but without much success. This time we are very committed,&uot; Schara said.

Coupled with the strong administrative support, Schara feels confident the alumni association will take off this time.

Graduates of any college that is now a part of Riverland Community College can join the alumni association by contacting the development office at 1-800-247-5039.